If you are in the voiceover industry as a voice actor, a talent agent or manager, casting director, studio owner, union rep or a producer, I strongly suggest you take the time to watch and join in this discussion.

Why? At Realtime, we believe sharing information with businesses in your same industry ensures that everyone is working toward similar business goals. If your industry as a whole looks good, so will your individual business.

Since attending VO Atlanta, I have reached out to a number of voice actors. We’re doing auditions with English and Spanish voices who attended the conference and took the time to say hello. I told everyone, “this industry moves fast!” VO Atlanta was time well spent and a special thank you to J Michael Collins for hosting our discussion and Gerald Griffith and his executive team for putting VO Atlanta together.

Here are my thoughts and takeaways from the weekend. My belief is advertising is ever flowing, it is not fixed. The voiceover business is changing and we need to invent something new. Invention and innovation has to be the biggest part of our next business model. We’ll make mistakes, but that’s what makes it exciting.

If you want to succeed in this industry, you must have the courage to function without conclusions. Many of us are under the assumption that conclusions protect us. SAG AFTRA, an agent or a casting website…but we do not need protection. Courage is knowing you won’t know what will come next; and having the faith to keep auditioning. That’s being in the business.

Advertising is the business of solving problems with creativity. Things change in the business, but this will never change. We need to always speak the truth.

No single point of view has the truth in the industry. We need a multiplicity of viewpoints. Everything is entangled. We are all connected and composed of the same ‘stuff’. We need to realize that hurting others only hurts ourselves.

If you enjoy this business, you are exactly in the right moment at the right time. The voiceover business is growing in strength. 2016 will be an exciting year in terms of products and services built to cater to the voiceover artist, studios and producers. We need to listen and pull together to create an environment conductive to creating success. It will take hard work, but will be worth it in the end for all.